Healing Burns the Matt Way
by Nanairo Suishou
Summary: Mello's burns are itching terribly from the healing process, but Matt is determined not to let him scratch. Minor MxM, slight cussing, darkly fluffy all in all. Spoilers for who Matt and Mello are and Mello's real name.


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A/N: This is was inspired by this stupid burn I have on my hand. It itches like heck because it's healing! . When I was trying to stop myself from itching it I heard Mello whining about his burns in my head. XD; He demands attention, you know. The bold right before the ending A/N is just a different ending. It was too dark for the feel I was going for here, so I decided not to use it, but I thought I'd put it in there just because. shrugs You obviously do not have to read it. Please review! .

DISCLAIMER: Dude, if only I owned Death Note...But I don't. D

* * *

"Matt, it itches!" Whined a blond boy, his lean frame draped across a worn couch. The boy was dressed as if he wanted the whole world to know he had an attitude problem, with ninety nine percent of his ensemble being shades of black.

His leather pants clung to his thin, but muscular body and ended at his his pale heels. His feet wore neither shoes nor socks. His black, quilted vest was just a slightly different shade of black then his pants, but not enough to be tacky. The only color that dared to try and compete for attention with the boy's bright yellow hair and piercing green eyes was the red rosary the hung around his neck. White bandages covered the left side of his face and snaked around his left arm. Under the bandages were the now healing burns from a plan gone wrong. It could have been worse and those burns reminded him so.

"You'll have to deal with it, Mells." Came the reply from the boy's companion. Matt had dark red hair, swept out of his face without much care so that he could better see whatever screen showed his latest video game. His eyes were sensitive to light, natural light especially, and thus were often hidden behind yellow tinted goggles. Right now the shades were closed with the only light coming from the T.V in front of him so the goggles lay around his neck. The gamer's eyes were also a shade of green, but paler then Mello's and Matt always thought that they looked dull in comparison. He had on a black and white stripped shirt and loose jeans and, like Mello, he went barefoot in their apartment.

"You don't understand," Mello countered, voice still holding a childish pout to it. "It's driving me crazy!" He squirmed around on the couch pathetically and gave Matt a look that the redhead guessed was supposed to make him feel sympathetic. Matt just thought he looked like an idiot.

"If you scratch at it it'll only get worse." He warned before turning back to the television. He was sure that his warning fell on deaf ears though, because Mello was still sulking and throwing himself around on the couch. Matt didn't even have to look away from the T.V screen to know that, he could feel Mello's dissatisfaction.

Hoping to distract himself from the morose ex-mafia member the redhead pushed start on his controller. Immediately he was in control of a pointy-haired brunette who carried around a giant key. As Matt started bludgeoning small, shadowy creatures, Mello slowly inched his right hand over to his left shoulder. Just as he was about to finally satisfy the urge to scratch at the new skin, Matt's voice rang out.

"Don't."  
Mello stared incredulously at the back of the striped-clad male's head. Matt hadn't moved an inch, save for his fingers on the controller, so how did the smoker know that he was about to scratch at his arm? He decided to feign innocence,

"What do you mean, Matt?" His tone of voice was pure and he sounded truly confused. Anyone who didn't know Mello would have been completely fooled by his little act. Unfortunately for Mello, Matt knew him very well.

"You were about to scratch your arm." Mello opened his mouth to protest, after all Matt wasn't looking at him at the time, but Matt cut him off. "And don't even play dumb. You know I can see right through your innocent act."

The room fell silent for a couple of minutes, devoid of chatter except for the random cartoon character from Matt's game. The younger knew that their little battle wasn't over yet though, he could still sense Mello sulking.

"Logically it wouldn't hurt if I scratched it just a little..."

Matt gave into the pleasure of rolling his eyes at his friend since the other boy couldn't see him anyway. So Mello wanted to use logic now, huh? Well even though the blond had been number two at Wammy's House Matt had been a close third. He was ready to step up to the bat and beat Mello.

"The new skin is still growing. If you scratch it you'll end up scraping it off and then-"

"What? It'll scar?" Mello butted in, sarcasm dripping all over his words. "We wouldn't want that."

Matt paused his game again, man he was never going to beat it if Mello kept this up, and pulled a cigarette out of a nearby carton. After fishing out his lighter, igniting his cigarette, and hitting start he finished what he was going to say originally, "Then it'll take longer to heal."

That was the last thing Matt wanted, he was very sick of wounded Mello. It wasn't the fact that Mello could be ten times snarkier then usual when he was in pain that got to Matt, it was just that seeing Mello after he had first been blown up scared the shit out of him.

All through Matt's life Mello had never been the one to calmly lay down or think about a situation. He was rash, loud, and bold and even when he was sick he'd never stayed down. So when Matt had pulled Mello out of the rubble from the mafia headquarters and saw what bad shape he was in he was almost convinced that it wasn't really Mello.

It couldn't be Mello that was crying in his sleep, not being able to find a comfortable position at all and who had a fever so high that Matt thought that the boy would once again burst into flames.

It couldn't be Mello that grit his teeth and thrashed around as Matt tried his best to heal him with his minimum knowledge of medicine and the help of Google and Wikipedia.

And it certainly couldn't have been Mello who had wondered aloud at one point if he should just give up and let Near take down Kira. (That one had scared Matt the most.)

"Matt?"

"..."

"Matt?"

"..."

"Matt!"

Matt blinked, snapped out of his reminiscing by a loud shout and a sharp pain in his head. Mello had gotten sick of not getting an answer and had picked up his cellphone and thrown it at Matt's head.

"What?" He finally replied.

"Can you give me back my phone?"

"Hmm? Oh, yeah, sure." The gamer said, still distracted as he handed Mello back his cellphone. This time it was by the fact that while he'd been caught up in depressing memories his character had died, leaving him now with a screen that prompted: Continue? Y/N.

"Don't you want to know why I threw my phone at you?" Mello frowned, irritated by his friend's short attention span.

"I'm pretty sure I know already. Let me guess, your burns itch?" Matt grumbled as he hit 'No' and rubbed the bump on the back of his head. He supposed he was lucky to get off with only a bump, Mello could have felt that shooting him in the leg was a better way to get his attention.

Mello smirked as the redhead got up and went to rummage behind the couch, figuring he'd gotten his was and Matt was starting to get annoyed. "Yeah, how did you know?"

Finding what he was looking for Matt hopped over the back on the couch and onto the cushions. He landed straddled on the still dramatically-sprawled Mello perfectly. "Lucky guess." He said, keeping the items in his hands hidden from Mello's view.

The blond raised an eyebrow, "What do you think you're doing?" He hadn't expected this reaction, not that he minded.

"Making it so you won't hurt yourself." Matt said, leaning closer so that his lips hovered over Mello's. He kept Mello's gaze as he slid his arms up the shorter man's.

"Really? By distracting me?" Mello breathed, ready to close the distance between himself and his boyfriend. He saw Matt's smirk a fraction of a second too late.

"Not exactly." The redhead moved quickly and there was the sound of duct tape ripping before Mello found himself in a very interesting position. Matt had somehow shoved oven mittens on his hands and duct taped them on.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?!" The blond screeched, agitated and more then a little confused.

Matt, apparently pleased with his work, hopped off of the couch and out of kicking distance.

"This way you can't scratch," He snickered. Taking a drag of his cigarette he watched in amusement as Mello tried desperately to try and get the mittens off. He couldn't.

Green eyes turned to glare at him, "Matt! I'm going to kill you!" Mello shrieked and tried to pick up his gun only to realize the oven mittens didn't allow him to pull the trigger.

Matt by this point was on the floor rolling in laughter, tear threating to roll down his face. Mello gave up on the gun and stomped over to Matt, deciding if he couldn't shoot the boy then he was at least going to kick him. Matt noticed him though and ran off to their bedroom and shut the door. He didn't bother to lock it, how was Mello going to turn the knob anyway?

Mello wasn't number two in Wammy's house for nothing though and eventually he managed to open the door using his feet. His wrath growing by the second he jumped onto the bed where Matt lay lazily playing his DS.

"Matt."

Matt looked up at the pissed off blond, who had murderous intent in his eyes.

"Yes, my love?" He replied, acting as if he hadn't just pinned his boyfriend down and taped oven mitts to his hands.

"How would you like to die?" Mello asked, adopting the sarcastically sweet tone of voice that Matt himself had used.

It was quiet for a moment while Matt 'thought' this over. The gamer gave Mello a cheeky grin before replying,

"Erotic Asphyxiation please."

Mello blinked, blinked once again, and then flopped down face-first beside Matt on the bed, giving up on trying to get his revenge at the moment. He'd forgotten that Matt was one of those clever idiots.

Matt smiled reassuringly at his favorite blond, although Mello couldn't see it with his face in the pillows, and put his DS into sleep mode. After abandoning the electrical device on the nightstand he curled up next to his boyfriend and draped an arm around him. Mello opened one green eye to look at Matt curiously, wondering if the redhead was planning on taping anything else to him.

"It'll be alright, ya know. They'll stop itching eventually and then you'll be as good as new."

"Until Kira kills me." Mello retorted, closing his eye and snuggling closer to the other boy.

"Until Kira kills you." Matt agreed with a sigh, closing his eyes as well tightening his grip on Mello just a little.

Eyes still closed Mello said quietly, "Hey Matt? When I die don't be all mopey, alright? Go out and find someone else." He paused for a moment before adding, "Just make sure they aren't as hot as me."

Matt grinned at the last part, but was still saddened by their conversation. "What are you talking about, Mells? We all know Kira's going to get me too...Besides, I don't think I could find anyone sexier then you." He chuckled quietly, burying is face into Mello's neck. He was almost asleep when Mello spoke once more, this time in a considerably lighter tone.

"You aren't going to take these off for awhile, are you?" He asked, referring to the oven mitts.

"Uh-uh." Matt replied sleepily.

"You know I'm going to get you for this later, right?"

"Uh-huh."

"And when I-"

"Mello?"

"What?"

"Shut up, okay?" Matt said it gently, not really annoyed by his partner's incessant chatter, but wanting to enjoy this moment and drift off to sleep. Who knew how long they would be alive? Mello had already insisted that they get back to work on the Kira case now that he could move around. It wouldn't be too long before the bandages came off for good and Mello hit the streets again.

"Sorry."

"S'ok, love you."

"Love you too."

The two boys fell asleep, their breath synchronizing as they dreamed.

* * *

"MELLO! Let me down from here!" Matt whined. It was a week after the oven mitt incident and Mello was finally getting his revenge. He had Matt duct taped to the wall, a feat that had not been easy to accomplish, but the look on the boy's face made it totally worth it.

"Not until I'm done." Mello taunted, revealing an item he had hidden behind his back.

Matt's eyes widened, "Mells? Mello? MIHAEL! What the hell are you doing with that feather?!"

Mello smirked, in too good of a mood to even snap about Matt using his real name, "Oh you'll see Matty, you'll see." He strode forward with a purpose, slowly tracing a pattern across Matt's face with the feather.

Matt squirmed, "Mello! Stop that, it-"

"It what? Itches?" Mello's smirk intensified, "This will show you never to mess with me when I have an itch!" He continued triumphantly, cackling every time Matt tried to wiggle away from the feather.

"Damn it Mello!"

"What's that? You haven't had enough?" Mello brushed the feather under the collar of Matt's furry vest.

"Ugh, Mello, please stop!" The gamer whined. Mello continued on like this with Matt whimpering the entire time about his 'torture' for a while. Their neighbors probably thought something else entirely was going on; Not that Matt or Mello cared what any of them thought.

Once Matt had finally admit defeat once and for all and promised never, ever to duct tape mittens or anything else to Mello, his 'torturer' finally stopped. Mello set to work finding all the oven mitts in the house, he was planning on burning them just in case.

As Mello went to leave and go find a lighter, he was positive there was one in the bedroom, Matt spoke up.

"Can you get me down now?"

Mello just smirked, "Sorry babe, but I think I'll keep you there for awhile. You make a good decoration." He snickered before walking off to the bedroom, ignoring all the curses that Matt through his way. Needless to say Matt vowed that from now on he was never going to mess with Mello...without making sure he could protect himself from the retaliation.

**(Original ending that didn't fit at all.)**

**Matt drifted off almost immediately after they had spoken, snoring lightly. Luckily Mello had long since gotten use to the sound. He wiggled just a little bit -which the sleeping Matt did not find suitable apparently because he made it quite hard- so that he could study the red-head for a moment. Pal e skin, dotted with the lightest hint of freckles. Long eyelashes that Mello found cute although he'd never admit it. It seemed like such a pity, no more then a pity, a monstrosity that Matt be murdered by Kira. **

**Mello had brought up the idea of getting someone else to distract Takada's guards, but Matt had a fit right away. It was one of the very few times that Mello had seen him get angry and he didn't want to see him like that again. Of course he didn't want to see the boy dead either... **

**Shaking his head ever so slightly he curled back up to Matt and struggled to get to sleep, feeling strangely guilty. Eventually he fell asleep, dreams troubled with their upcoming battle. **

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******A/N: So what do you guys think? I'm not a fan of the ending, but I ran into a wall. ) It's not as bad as some of my old stories though. stares at them and shudders o.o**


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